At the End of the Day
by Mrs. Horatio Caine
Summary: Horatio Caine has lost touch with the world outside the job, until he meets a woman that turns his life upside-down. Not only does he feel strongly attracted to her, but it also let´s him question his feelings for Yelina Salas. [HO,HY]
1. Default Chapter

Title: At the End of the Day

Author: Me

Rating: R (for future chapters)

Disclaimer: Never owned, or will own any of the characters or places within CSI Miami. All belongs to CBS, Alliance Atlantis and talented Producer Jerry Bruckheimer!

Spoilers: The story runs parallel with episodes, starting from midway Season 1.

* * *

„ Piss off!"

„What have I done wrong now," Horatio Caine wore a puzzled look while throwing up his arms in a gesture of dispair, a very unusual thing to do for the Lieutenant of the CSI Department of Miami-Dade.

"You know very well what you did...AGAIN!"

"Is this the We-promised-mother-that-we´d-come-over-for-her-birthday-but-you-didn´t-show-up´ situation again!"

"Sure as Hell it is," Cathrine was close at throwing her glass of tomato juice (which was a must for herwhen she was extremely vexed or close to loosing control) at her husband and take one of the kitchen chairs tofollow it. "I´m sick of always telling mother that you couldn´t do it and will make it up to her right into her sagging, dissappointed face! I always have to iron the things out that you do wrong in your personal life! But not anymore Horatio, NOT ANYMORE, DAMIT!"

Tears sprang into her already bloodshot eyes. She had promised herself not to cry again but obviously her exhaustion made it impossible. She sank back onto the couch and covered her face with her hands. Horatio stood there quite speechless and unable to move even an inch. Why hadn´t he seen this coming.

"C...Cathrine...I´m...I´m sorry...I..."

"Don´t...say...another...word," she wispered, and Horatio had to strain his ears in order to hear her at all. "Not another word!...Get out..." He looked at her dumbstruck. Cathrine got up so suddenly that she caught the table with her knees and caused the bottle with tomato juice to soak the beige carpet underneath. She pointed with her index finger towards the door of their house. "GET OUT...NOW!"

Horatio grabbed his jacket, took his car keys, and was gone within seconds, without a slamming of the door. Cathrine started to shiver violently. 'Bastard' she thought, and she wasen´t talking about Horatio.


	2. Cathrine Deven

Cathrine Deven had lived in Miami for almost 12 years now. It had been quite hard to get used to the city and it´s vacation atmosphere. It was still a bustling city, like any other of course, but the citizens were always in a constant state of celebration. Especially the clubs were packed after 7 pm, but the people of Miami were still hard working individuals, and that showed itself in any profession performed in the city of constant exitement.

Cathrine had grown up in Elizabeth, Maine; a small village situated between Mooselookmeguntic Lake and Mt. Sugarloaf, a real hikers paradise. But she had always been drawn to the city, and therefore had left her hometown immediately after she had finished High-School. The extiement brought by the constant traffic, the laughter and music out on the busy streets at night and the sound of people coming and going around her apartment block was what gave Cathrine the energy to wake up and go to work everyday.

Not that life had been all that bad in Elizabeth. It had hadit´s exitements; a funeral here, a wedding there, an affair around the corner, but there were no possibilities of night life. No clubs, no discos, no pubs or bowlingbars, not even a cinema. Cathrines junger brother Eric had no problem with living a life out of the ordinary, a life that resembeld the everyday exitement of a senior citizen. He rather spent his time brooding over science books and literature articles given to him by his best friend, a librarian.

So Cathrine had left Elizabeth and gone to the big city in the south, another important factor. She hated the winter season, being cold, presenting herself with a runny nose and a cough everytime she came in concat with some one who only had the beginning symptoms of one. She had hoped that her amazing talent for catching anyones´ cold would take care of itself. And it had, wonderfully. She hadn´t been sick once since moving to Miami.

After she had found a nice little apartment for herself opposite the beach, which cost her a little fortune every month, Cathrine started looking for work straight away. She luckily found one in the same week, and started to work as a waitress in a cozy café just a few blocks away, ´The Sun´. It was a simple job that she liked very much. Not only did she serve the people what they ordered, but she also made new friends with the customers that came regularly, or even everyday. After 2 pm the place was always packed with teenagers that just got out of school, and ther was one girl that Cathrine had strated to feel affection for especially. Her name was Dana, and Cathrine viewed her as being her younger sister. They did a lot of things together, and Cathrine appreciated the fact that she had someone to talk to in this big city, far away from home, even though that someone was 17 years younger than herself.


	3. One Fine Day

Today was one of those days that Cathrine liked very well. Her alarm clock woke her up at 7 am with ´Secret´ by Maroon 5, she realized that she still had some RiceCrispies left for breakfast, the day was a little cooler than usual, Carol, her boss, gave her a payment raise, and Stacy had invited her to her birthday party.

It was way past 6 pm (her official time for workend) and Cathrine was on her way home. Carol had offfered to drive her, but she wanted to walk that little distance and reassured her that she´d be fine by herself. Cathrine had taken off her shoes and was strolling along the beach, looking steadily at the ground, watching the sand flow over her feet as she dug them into it and lifted them up again. She was thinking about nothing in particular, when she suddenly saw a pair of black shoes facing the sea, rigth in front of her own.

* * *

Horatio Caine was busy looking over a profile of a suspect that was probaly causing the bomb threaths that were hitting Miami the past 2 weeks and had finally taken thier practical job into action this morning at a beauty parlor in Miami Beach. With only a warning often minutes before it would go off, solely giving enough time to evacuate the building, the bomb had torn half the parlor into bits. Horatio had spent his entire moring and beginning of the afternoon at the crime scene, looking for any indication of who and howthe criminalhad done this. Nothing had helped him or his fellow C.S.I.s to come to any conclusions, except to where the bomb had exploded, but he had also not expected it to so quikly, at least not much, since they hadn´t even been able to trace any of the maniacs preceeding phone calls either, but that there was absolutely no evidence whatsoever was tearing at his nerves.

Horatio was just rubbing his eyes out of frustration; he had to get the bastard, he had to get him before someone died; as Eric Delko walked into his office.

"Make me happy," he said, leaning back into his chair and cracking his lower back.

"Sure, H. The bomb was an IED, around five gallons of Astrolite. We found the melted plastic containers close to the explosion site, and some Astrolite remained inside a bubble in the plastic...luckily.

"Good, at least we´ve got something," Horatio looked at him with a half-hearted smile on his face. Eric turned around and was opening the door to leave again. "Eric," he quickly turned around again. "Go home. Enough for today."

"Okay H.," He made another 180° turn and left the room.

* * *

Horatio stayed another three hours after Eric, Speed, Alexx and Calleigh had left, brooding more over the case without evidence, trying to see if he had missed anything. He had gone back to the crime scene in his mind, looking over the explosion´s center, it´s closest surroundings, the area around the building. He was just going to open one of the trash cans as he realized that he hadn´t done so, and therefore deciden to go and check it out, but tomorrow. Tomorrow he told himself, got up from his chair, took his jacket off the rack, turned off the lights and left his office. Arriving out on the parking lot, he climed behind the wheel ofhis Hummer, turned his key in the ignition and was off home.

Horatio was halfway home when he dicided to take a right turn and drive towards the beach. He hadn´t been there for pure enjoyment for a long, long time and felt that he could need a little peace from his busy life. Even though it was only for a few short minutes. He parked is car, left his jacket behind, and made his way towards the shore. As he stood there he tried to expell all his thoughts out of his mind, and just concentrate on the splashing of the incoming waves. But after a few minutes, his train of thought unevitably found it´s way back to the case. Lost in his thoughts, Horatio did not notice a figure approaching him from a distance, until it was about ten feet away from where he was standing.

* * *

Cathrine hadn´t seen him at all, hadn´t noticed him one bit, and as she stood in front of him now, she didn´t know what to say either or what to do, how to react. He rested his hands on his hips and looked her straight in the eyes, tilting his head a little towards the left side. She turned bright red, at least that´s what it felt like, and she hoped that the black of night conceled her face.

"Hello Miss," he gave her a little smile that suddenly made her day worthwhile.

"Oh, I didn´t mean to intrude. I...I´ll be on my way. Sorry," Cathrine turned around and walked back towards the street. She was nearly at the sidewalk, when she noticed that he had followed her.

"No need to excuse yourself Miss...?"

"Cathrine. Cathrine Deven," she offered him her hand.

"Horatio Caine," he took it in his. She smiled back, and Horatio thought that he hadn´t seen an honest smile like that from a stranger in ages. "I know it might seem a little out of the ordinary for me to ask this, but...are you sure that you´re supposed to be walking all by yourself at this time of night?"

"Oh, I just live one more block from here. I walk this way from work everyday. I´m alright by myself. " She noticed, now that they were walking under the latern lights, that he was quite tall...and he had red hair. He was wearing a white shirt and dark-blue silk slacks, his identity disk was fixed on his belt. "You´re a police officer," he gave her a look of suprise. "Your belt."

He looked down at himself and realized that he hadn´t taken the disc off yet. "Yeah, I patrol the beaches at nightand look out for rapists."

"Really? Then I´m lucky tonight," this time a look of amusement showed on his face. "Alright. I have to get going. Gotta get up early. Good night Mr. Officer."

"C.S.I."

"What?"

"I work for the Crime Scene Investigation Department."

"Mr. C.S.I. then. Good night." Cathrine offered Horatio her hand and shook it again, turned around and crossed the street.

"Wait," Horatio shouted, and she spun on her heel when she was savely on the other side. "Where did you say you worked ?"

"I didn´t tell you anything." she said. He just shrugged his shoulders. "The Sun. I work at ´The Sun´."

He watched her walk down a few more feet, then up some steps and after a few seconds into the house. She turned around one more time and waved. He lifted his hand as a sign of farewell. She smiled and then dissappearedthrough thedoor.

"The Sun." Horatio said quietly to himself. He walked back to his car, got in and sat there for a few moments. Then he started the engine and was on his way home.


	4. ´The Sun´ and a Cup of Coffee

"Smiling, H," Tim Speedle was eyeing Horatio with a look of disbelief. "I haven´t even brought you the good news yet."

Horatio was sitting behind his desk, quite content with life.

"You could make the smile even bigger, Speed, by answering a question for me."

"Okay, H. First the question, or the good news?" Horatio raised his eyebrows. "Right, right. Try me. What d´you want to know?"

"What is ´The Sun´?" he sank back into his chair.

"A little café. Quite cute. Sells the normal stuff, but has it´s own uniqueness. The inkeep makes the ice-cream herself."

"Thanks. Now the good news."

"One of the witnesses, a Mrs..." Speedle took a quick look at the file in his hands. "Sandra Parker..." he looked back at Horatio "...sais that, she remembers seeing a man that fits to the discription of our suspect, was going into one of the backrooms while she was getting her treatment."

"And why is Mrs. Parker telling us this today?" Horatio got up from his seat and came around the corner, leaving the office. Speed quickly followed him.

"Because she had had temporary memory-loss after colliding with a wall when the bomb exploded."

"Alright. Where is she?"

"At home."

"I want to talk to her. Where does she live," he was already going in the direction of the elevator.

"But, it´s all written in here?"

"Anyway. Where does she live, Speed?" Horatio pressed the elevator button.

"Close to the parlor. 10th Huntington St." The elevator doors opened.

"Thank you Speed. You made my day."

* * *

Cathrine was just cleaning one of the tables for the next customer as Dana came through the doors of ´The Sun´.

"Hi Cathy!"

"Hi...already finished with school for today," Cathrine came over and hugged her friend.

"Yep. Mrs. Parker is sick or something. Dunno really what´s wrong with her, so we got off early," Dana threw her school-bag into a corner and seated herself at the table Cathrine had just wiped clean.

"Not going home first?" she gave Dana a questioning look.

"No. My friends are coming any minute."

"What can I get you then?"

"An ice chocolate, with extra chocolate."

"Wow! Trying to drown your troubles?"

"No. Not at all. Rather the opposite," a huge grin appeared on Dana´s face.

"Oh. News from Mark?"

Mark was Dana´s new crush. "Mmmmmm...may be."

Cathrine went to ask Carol if she could take some minutes off.

* * *

Horatio was on his way back from his talk with Mrs. Parker. He hadn´t learned anything that he hadn´t read in the report that Tim had given him. Sandra Parker had just seen the man go into one of the rooms, and come back out a few minutes later. After around ten or fifteen minutes later, too little time to set up a bomb of that size.

Horatio suddenly realized that he was driving along the street on which he had met this ´Cathrine´ the night before. He remembered that she had told him she not only lived on this street, but worked on it as well. So now he was looking out for a café , as Speed had told him, with the name ´The Sun´.

A few moments later it crossed his vision.

* * *

Cathrine and Dana were sitting at a table in the far back of the café, both had ice chocolate in front of them and Dana was immersed in her story about Mark; her hands were moving in all directions as she told Cathrine about thier current situation.

"...And then he said that he wants to meet me at this club tonight, to go dancing. I didn´t think that he´d invite me right out on a real date...I thought it would be for a quick drink or something." Dana looked up at Cathrine with her sparkling, exited eyes.

"Well, that´s better for you then, isn´t it? I haven´t gone out dancing for ages...I haven´t gone out on a date for ages either."

"Oh Cathy...what should I wear! I haven´t got anything appropriate."

"No worries. I bet you´ll find something."

" Will you come over to my place and help me decide? Pleeeease!"

"Sure. If you tell me all aboutyour datetomorrow."

"Of course!"

"All right darlin´. I have to go back to work. And...I thought your friends were about to come any minute?"

"They were supposed to. I don´t know why they aren´t here yet." That moment a bunch of teens spilled through the doors. "When you speak of the devil."

"Right...enjoy the other part of your day as well, otherwise you´ll hear people complain about a friend of their´s that has forgotten about them completely. And do your homework before you go out! Alright!"

"Yeah, yeah..."

"Dana!"

Dana was already on her way over to meet her friends, and just waved a hand at Cathrine. "I will...I will. Promise."

Cathrine just gave a sigh and put her apron back on to begin work. She was on her way to the bar as she realized that someone was waiting there. Emberrassed that no one else had taken care of the new customer, she hurried up behind the bar.

"I´m sorry. What can I bring..." she had looked up and realized who the person in front of her was and stopped apruptly to put the glasses, that were standing around the sink, back in order. "Oh, I see you´ve found out where I work."

"If I wouldn´t have I think I would do pretty bad at my job." Horatio Caine was standing contently before the bar, hand on his hips and looking her strait in the eye. He took off his sun glasses and put them in his breast pocket.

Cathrine gave him a smile, "I guess you´re right there, Mr. Caine."

"Horatio."

"Horatio. So, what can I bring you?"

"I only have a limited time available for lunch, but I think it´s enough for a small cup of coffee."

"A coffee then it is."

Cathrine turned around and went to work on the coffee straight away, while Horatio took a look around the place. ´The Sun´ had a rural feeling to it, quite nice for a café situated in such a big city, it gave the place something special. It was not just like any of the other modern, typical places around Miami. All the furniture was made of mahogany and the tapestry held in pastels and it was also smaller than usual, but that was what gave the café it´s cozyness.

Cathrine wasen´t able to concentrate on making the coffee at all. She was only conscious of Horatio´s precence behind her and so she poured it all over the saucer, ("Shit!"). The coffee had just been enough for one last cup, but she didn´t want to pour the little bit that did land in the cup into another one, so she started to make a fresh pot. She quickly turned around to see if he was watching her, but he was checking out the café instead. ("Ah, Shit!"), she had taken the cinnamon instead of the coffee powder, and therefore had to change the filter and let the wasted one dissapear. Now she prayed that he wasen´t watching her. Finally, after about 3 minutes she came back with his cup of fresh brewed coffee.

"Here you go."

Horatio turned to face her, "Thank you."

"Would you like to pay now, or later."

"Now, if that´s okay."

"Sure," Cathrine took out her large purse, "That makes 2,80."

Horatio gave her 3, "Keep the change."

She put the 3 into the purse, "Thank you for stopping by. Hope you like the coffee."

"Sure I will."

She gave him a little nod as a good bye and left, with shaking knees, to attend to the bunch of teens.

* * *

Cathirne hadn´t noticed him leaving, and as she cleaned up his coffe a few minutes later she found that he had left his card behind. ´Why would he do that?´ she thought, but put it in her purse anyway.

The group of teens were about to leave as well, and Dana came over to say good bye and remind Cathrine that she´d promised to come over before Dana would leave for her date.

"...and Cathy, who was the guy up at the bar?"

"Why do you ask."

"Well...who was he?"

"Oh, just someone I met yesterday." Cathrine felt herself becoming red in the face.

"Ahh, that´s why."

"What!"

"He was watching you the entire time."

"Really!" that response had come too fast, and Cathrine turend around qickly so Dana wouldn´t hear her swear at herself for it, and pretended to clean off the table which was already specless.

"So I see there´s interest on the other side as well."

"No there isn´t."

"Sure there is. I saw the way you flirted with him when he gave his order...and you took your time to make his coffee ´speccially good. Freshly brewed."

"Don´t be rediculus, Dana. I don´t even know the guy."

"Just because I´m younger than you are, doesn´t mean I don´t have experience in these things...and I guess I do have quite a bit more experience, since you said you haven´t had a date in a long time and I´m having one tonight. You have any idea where he lives?"

"He left behind his card." Cathrine took it out of her purse again and showed it to Dana, who snapped the card out of her fingers.

"Ha, you see! He´s devinitely interested," she took a good look at it. "Horatio Caine. Crime Scene Investigation. A cop. Exiting...no address, but a phone number. Which is even better. You would look stupid, suddenly appearing at his door. So...you gonna call him?"

"I don´t know."

"Can I call him then? I think he´s cute."

"And way too old for yourslef, Missi! Anyway, you have your own date to go to, so you better get home. When I get to your place and I see you haven´t done your homework, I´m gonna call Mark and tell him your date is off."

"Alright, alright. I´m going. I wasen´t really going to call him anyway, Jealous!"

"Dana!"

"I´m already gone." she took her schoolbag and was out the door within seconds.


	5. The First Date, not without humiliation

"Please tell me my birthday has arrieved earlier this year, Calleigh." Horatio was checking in on his team mates and had found Calleigh in the DNA lab of the C.S.I. department.

"I´ve got nothing new for you, H. I´m sorry."

"What are you doing in here then?"

"Just a little private investigation."

"Do I have to worry about you?" Horatio knew that Calleigh´s father had an alcohol problem.

"No. You don´t." She gave him one of her dazzling smiles. "You can also give up on Tim or Eric to give you good news."

"We must have overlooked something! Tell them I want to see you guys and Alexx in my office in short."

The past week had been hell for the team of the C.S.I. of Miami-Dade. They had found no DNA to analyze, and Mrs. Parker had not been able to indentify anyone that looked like the man she had seen enter the parlor during her session. The leftover canisters and astrolite were no real help to them either, except that they knew that someone professional had assembled the bomb. Not only were they no step futher, but several more bomb threats had kept them holding their breath. Fortunately no more explosions had shook the ground of Miami. So far.

When the whole team found itself in Horatio´s office; Alexx leaning against the door frame, Speed stitting on the table top, Calleigh and Eric seated on the green couch and Horatio standing behind his desk; they looked quite stressed and unhappy with themselfs.

"We must have overlooked something!" Horatio was glaring at all of his team members, hoping any of them would suddenly have a realization.

"We´ve collected all the evidence one could find at a bomb explosion site." Tim said, shrugging his shoulders.

"I guess reading the evidence is not enough this time." Eric gave as his explanation.

"No, it´s not. I think we should go back to the crime scene and take another good look around. Alexx, you can go..." Horatio´s cell phone rang. He took it out of his pocket and looked at the display. No number he recocnized. He turned back to his team. "...you can go and take care of your other cases. The rest of you, get tready to move out."

Everyone got up to leave and Horatio aswered his call.

"Horatio Caine."

"Hi, this is Cathrine."

"Cathrine?"

"Cathrine Deven. I work at ´The Sun´, Remember?"

Horatio suddenly had a vision of the woman he was talking to over his mobile. Average height, jet-black, long, curly hair, green eyes, a smile that meant what it expressed. "Miss Deven, yes. Of course I remember, the coffee was very good."

"Ehm...well...I wasen´t sure if I should call at this time. I wasen´t sure if I should call at all...I just thought that...may be...well, you left your card and I just thought that...may be...you would be interested to..." Cathrine suddenly paused for a long moment. She felt like such an idiot, she should never have called him.

"Cathrine?"

"Yes?"

"Would you like to go out for a drink?"

"Sure." She let out her breath, which she hadn´t realized she´d held. She hoped he didn´t hear it.

"Tonight? At 8?"

"Perfect."

"I´ll pick you up."

"Sure...you very well know where I live."

"I do."

"So tonight at 8...Great...See you then."

"Goodbye Cathrine."

"Goodbye."

She hung up.

Horatio pressed a button to end the call, and then was on his way. Back to the crime scene.

* * *

Horatio had totally forgotten about Cathrine Deven, and had been surprised to get a call from her. Truthfully, he didn´t know why he had asked her out, nor why he had left his card. She had been cute when she´d walked back home all by herself that night, no mistake. But Horatio had no idea what had drawn him to leave the card by the empty cup of coffee. Not only did he feel that there was no time at the moment for a blooming relationship, or mutual interest...may be even for the few good years to come, but he also had to get even with his mixed feelings towards Yelina Salas, his sister-in-law. 

Horatio and Yelina had shared an interest for eachother and a short relationship, until she decided to go for his younger brother Raymond and exchange the marriage vows with him; and now that Ray was dead, that fragile family relatioship was somewhat brittle and could easily give way to something more.

On the other hand he thought it might be good to meet some new people. His personal life had suffered great losses since he´d become Lieutenant. He did have his moments with his crew, where they´d find something positive behind a tragedy, he did take care of Ray Junior, his nephew, and Yelina. But other than that he couldn´t proove to be an active person in his community. He slept very little and was rarely at home or out at night, to go out for a movie or something to eat. There was nothing besides his job, and til now that had been what he wanted. He rembered the days in which he´d had time for leisure, and that had been a time he didn´t like to rember.

Now, as Horatio got out of his hummer to inspect the scene of the bomb explosion a week ago, he pushed these thoughts out of his mind.

As always.

* * *

It was 7:23 pm now, and Cathrine was already dressed to go out. Since they were only going out for a drink, Cathrine had chosen to wear a pair of faded jeans and her favorite 1/4 length, black cardingan with a red corset underneath and her matching red ballerinas. She wore a touch of make-up; a little mascara, some eyeliner and lip gloss; and had decided to put her hair up in a ponytail. She still had a lot of time left until Horatio would come and pick her up, and so got up to make her ration of semolina for the next day. She went over to her stereo and put on ´Gabriel´ by Lamb, the song she loved to listen to the past few days. Cathrine pressed the ´repeat´ button and walk into her kitchen to start off with boiling milk for the semolina. While waiting for the milk to get hot enough, which could take ages with that stove of hers, she got her sketching utensils from her bedroom and started to draw whatever came into her mind. 

She loved to depict her thoughts and imagination as pencil drawings, they would always turn into black-and-white pictures, nothing very complicated or confusing. ´Too much detail, and it becomes a mess´ was her mantra; and not only when it came to her art, but also in her personal life.

When she had gotten to the bridge that would cross the river flowing through a forest, Cathrine reckoned that the milk would be ready and got up to check that it wasen´t already to late, and she would have to clean up a mess.

Luckily the milk hadn´t overcooked yet, therefore Cathrine went over to a cupboard to get some bowls and then opened the package with the already done semolina mix. As the song started all over again, she joined in.

_´I can fly, but I want His wings. I can shine, even in the darkness, but I crave the light that He brings, ravel in the songs that He sings...My Angel Gabriel...´_

She continued to stirr the semolina in the pot for about another minute, but then went on to concentrate on what she was doing. Her mother had taught her not to stirr it for too long, and to add a whipped egg so that the semolina would loosen up and it´s flavour be more enhanced. Now, as Cathrine was fully concentrated, she just hummed the melody of the song. But as soon as she was finished with the procedure of getting the semolina just the way her mother did, and the song had played twice during her efforts and was nearly at it´s end, repeating the first verse, she joined back in. And this time will all the voice she could muster, oblivious to the fact that someone might hear her.

As a result of her artistic cooking habits and her enthusiasm for singing along, Cathrine had missed the frist ringing of her doorbell. And the second time, which had come quite some time after the first, as well as the third time. Then, finally, she heard a knock on her door, and someone calling her name. Horrified she took a look at the clock and realized that it was alread 8:10 pm. She quickly turned off the stove, turend the music down and hurried to open the door.

In front of her stood an amused Horatio Caine.

"Hi, did I get you at a wrong moment?"

"Sorry...I...ehm...I was just...Why don´t you come in first?" she held the door open for him to enter. He accepted her invitation and walked into her livingroom. "Sorry. I was finished early getting ready, and so I started to cook some semolina. I guess I had the music too loud."

"So it was you I heard singing?"

"Oh my God! You heard me singing?"

"I think everyone on the block heard you." He toyed around with his sunglasses and tilted his head to the side, a sly grin playing around his mouth. He noticed her turning red and decided to suddenly find her apartment very interesting; which it turned out to be; so that she could have some space. Her flat was small, but richly furnished with colorful decorations and comfortable looking furniture. Not only was her apartment leaving an impression on him, but Cathrine herself looked stunning in her casual outfit. Now, as her cheeks were a little flushed, Horatio had to controle himself not to stare at her too much, andhe remembered why he´d left his card.

"So, are you ready to go?" he asked, braking the scilence.

"I´ll just pour the semolina into the bowls, and then we can go."

The song was starting from the beginning again, and Horatio silently listened to it, while watching Cathrine through the door of the kitchen.

_´I can fly, but I want His wings. I can shine, even in the darkness, but I crave the light that He brings, ravel in the songs that He sings...My Angel Gabriel...´_

"Nice song."

"What?"

"The song you were singing...it´s nice." Horatio watched her shoulderblades work underneath that creamy skin, and her black hair sway along her back in a nice contrast. He was shocked about the way he was looking at this woman he barely knew.

She put the pot into the sink, got her cardigan from the chair beside the kitchen table and joined him in her livingroom.

"Okay, I´m ready to go."

* * *

_Lobito´s_ wasen´t a café that Cathrine would pick to go to for a date. You could see that it used to be a restaurant that also welcomed families, but now it had become a meeting place for the people spending their nights out instead of at home, caring for a family or at least a partner of the opposite sex. Cathrine had often hear her neighbours say that _Lobito´s_ had exeptionally good food for a restaurant of it´s kind, but had been too uncomfortable to go there by herself, or even with Dana. She felt that, for a woman, coming here was only save in male company. Even during day time. 

While they were waiting for a waiter to take thier orders, Cathrine and Horatio were only giving in to small talk.

"So you work for the C.S.I.?"

"Yes."

"For how long?"

"Around 16 years."

"Is it depressing?"

"What?" Horatio looked up from his menu card.

"Working for the C.S.I.! Seeing what all those crazy people do to eachother."

"I got used to it. I guess I´ve always been imune to these exposures. Not that I find crime acceptable, otherwise I wouldn´t do this job...no, I do feel for the victims. But were not supposed to take sides, that´s our job. And you? What do you do in Miami?"

"I moved here 12 years ago. Grew up in Maine, in a little Village called Elizabeth. But rural life wasen´t for me, so I moved down here, got a job I enjoy. I´m quite content with myself."

The waiter finally came and Cathrine ordered a Latte Macciato, while Horatio took a non-alcoholic beer. He din´t want to cross any borders. When the boy that had taken their orders left, Cathrine took up conversation again.

"I can see you are a native," she asked after putting away the menu.

"Yes, I was born and raised here in Miami."

"And you mother and father, they still live here?" She realized immideately that she´d hit a nerve. He lowered his gaze to inspect his hands and gave a rather forced, not so earnest smile and then looked back up into her face. "Sorry, I didn´t mean to..."

"No, it´s okay. You couldn´t have known. It would be more than logical for you to ask me this. It´s okay...my father left our family when I was very young...my brother had just been born. My mother had to take care of us by herself, and therefore it wasen´t a surprise that we could only afford to live in a dody quater,but it was fine. My brother Raymond and me got used to it, and were able to deal with the things we expirienced. Then...when I was 16, my mother got killed by a dealer that was giving us trouble, and...as you migth guess, I became interested in becoming a cop. I helped the MDPD solving my mother´s case, and after finishing High School I went straight to police academy. But as soon as I got to know that the people at the CSI department did all the evidence collecting that would eventually nail a criminal, I went and enrolled in university, got my bachelor in chemistry, went back, and now I´m a Lieutenant."

Cathrine had not interrupted him in his flow, and had listened very attentively. She knew that it helped a great deal to talk to someone about these things that unconcienously haunt your thoughts. To her, Horatio seemed to be one of those people that could deal with memories like that only because they knew that there were people who´s lives were even more messed up than their own. That was probably one of the reasons why he chose to do the job he does, so that he´d feel better about himself, and confident that he was trying to act against that which brougth him misery, and was still affecting the lives of many.

But, Cathrine thought, at some point that won´t help him anymore to forget and confront who he really is.

"Wow...Well, since you´ve given me something I haden´t intendet in getting, I´ll tell you something earthshattering that has influenced my life, and then I´ll just ask harmless questions like earnest people do at those internet dating forums"

"You don´t have to if you don´t want to. I didn´t intend this drink to reveal quite that much."

But Cathrine insisted, "Don´t worry, when I talk to people about my experience, it makes me feel like I´m helping them understand the necessity of being careful while spending time alone. I guess this advice won´t be a neccesity for you, since you walk around with a gun most of the time. But anyway...I want to get even."

"Okay." He nodded his head towards the right and lifted his arms to rest them on the back of the bench behind him.

"Well, you´re gonna laugh about me when you hear what has been the most criminal thing I´ve done so far in my life."

"So far!"

"You never know what life will force you to do," He raised his eyebrows, and she just gave a shrug as an answer. The waiter came back, set their orders in front of them, and left again.

"When I was 12..." she leaned forward a little. "...I went to a Lingerie store and stole a pair of black lace knickers..." He gave a breathy but deep laugh, and decided to do this more often. It was seldom that he laughed nowadays. "...for my mother. It was her birthday, but I´d already spent all of my pocket money on my favorite candy, and this magazine that gave you plastic pear necklace as a gift with it. So – here it is... the moment that changed my lifeforever. From that day on I started to pray for forgiveness every evening. I felt so guilty, I said to myself that I would do all in my power to make other people happy by giving as much as I have. Be it material, emotional or spiritual. I´m paying more now, than those knickers were worth!" Cathrine shook her black curls from side to side, and her cheeks began to flush a little.

´She´s lovely´ Horatio thought. "Just lovely."

"What´s lovely?"

"What!" he realized he´d been thinking out loud. "Oh...the..ehm, sunset."

She turned around to look out the panorama window behind her back. The sky was showing off with a blend of blue and deep-red. "You´re quite right. It´s lovely." She moved to face him again and caught him studying her. She pretended not to notice, and placed her head in her hands. "Now to the harmless questions."

"Alright, this time I´ll start."

"Shoot it."

"Single?"

"You get straight to the piont!"

"It was you suggestion to ask questions like they do on partner-search...so?"

"Single. You?"

"Single." She gave him a grin with a twinkle in her eyes. "Type of music?"

"Not sure...a lot. Yours?

"Good question. I don´t have a lot of time to listen to it much." he said. Cathrine gave a little nod.

"Now me. Which side of the bed do you sleep on?" Horatio gave her a startled look. "A handsome man your age must have been married once until now." Horatio shifted foreward, crossed his arms and leaned unto his elbows. "You know...it tells a lot about the person. People that sleep on the left are usually more turned in, not quite as open as people that sleep on the right. That doesn´t apply to me really...I sleep on the right, eventhough I live alone."

"Left, I slept on the left side."


	6. Another piece to the puzzle

"Yes? What! Sorry." Horatio was sitting at his desk, staring into space, and hadn´t realized that Eric had come into his office. "I´m sorry Eric. What did you say?"

"I just wanted to tell you that we´ve looked at the survaillance tape of the ATM that we found opposite the beauty parlor. No one suspicious, and unless we find tapes that recorded at any of the other bomb threat sites that we can compare it with, we´ve got nothing that could give us a hand. Sorry, H."

"Thank you Eric." Horatio got up from his chair and came around the table.

"For what!" Eric moved his arms in a questioning manner. "We´re looking for this guy for 3 weeks now and haven´t got any further."

"I know, but thank you for not quitting on the case," Horatio faced the younger man in front of him and put a hand on his shoulder. "I know I can count on you, and I really appreciate it."

"Always there for you H." He gave his boss a weak smile and left.

Horatio went over to the green couch, which had already been in here when he´d still worked for his boss Meagan Donner. He sat down, leaned into the soft upholstery, lifted his feet onto the seat beside him, and closed his eyes.

The picture of Cathrine Deven cleaning the pot in her kitchen wouldn´t leave him alone. She had still been sining the song that was playing softly in the background, and the way her hair had caressed the skin along her back had literally knocked out his breath. He usually wasen´t the type that got carried away so quickly, but Cathrine Deven was evoking feelings in him he never knew he could have for someone he barely knew. Yes, they had gotten to know eachother a little last weekt; but he still didn´t really know her. Of course there were people that claimed to know you the moment they first met you, but Horatio was a realist. He felt you could never, really, know anyone.

After the bed question they had just continued serious small talk, chatted about their time being youngsters, finding work, September 11th, and so on and so forth. He´d told her how easy studying at universety had been for him; she, how it never came to her what she wanted to do in her life until she started work at the café.

Cathrine Deven. It was pissing him off that he couldn´t concentrate on work at all. Not that there was anything he could have done to solve the case at the moment anyway, but to see his collegues work their asses of in the labs, while he was sitting around thinking if he should invite Cathrine to go out that night, was tearing at his nerves.

Horatio was rubbing his eyebrows as Tim came running into the room.

"Horatio!"

Suddenly all of his senses were turned on. "Yes!"

"We´ve got another bomb threat!"

* * *

The Hummer came to a shrieking stop, but Lieutenant Horatio Caine didn´t notice the gravel flying in all directions. He jumped out of his car and hurried towards the croud of people that was steadly growing larger. The police was evacuating the building that was victim to the current threat, and as Horatio came closer he realized that it was the café that he and Cathrine had taken their drink in, _Lobito´s_.

Horatio walked over to Detective Frank Tripp to ask for the most recent details on the situation.

Tripp was already filling him in when Horatio was only a few feet away. "We´ve shut off the area in a ¼ of a mile radius and sent the Bomb Squad in already, but they haven´t found anything yet."

"Who called this time?"

"Same guy, of course used his voice distorter again. Didn´t stay long enough for us to trace the call. Basically we have the same stituation in front of us as in all the other cases. Nothing out of the ordinary."

"Alright. Did he say how much time there´s left?"

"No. Nothing. No time limit, conditions for negotiation...absolutely nothing we can work with."

"Okay, he´s playing with us big time. This has been going on for 3 weeks now, and if he would do it for some other reason than pure entertainment, he´d have told us what he wants to get out of this long ago. I guess we´re dealing with a sick mind, and he´s beginning to get on my nerves."

"We´re luky that he´s being so conciderate with us. It could be much worse than this."

Horatio turned towards Tripp and gave him a thoughtful look over his sunglasses. "However you see it."

* * *

"So he hasen´t called you at all this past week!" Dana was looking at her older friend with raised eyebrows that were in danger to dissapear into the hairline above her forehead.

"No."

"´No´ what!"

"No, he hasen´t called me after our drink." Cathrine was sitting with Dana at their usual table at the back of ´The Sun´. She did feel a little put out by Horatio´s behavior, but she guessed that he was a very busy man. And with all these bomb threats all over Miami, she couldn´t blame him concentrating on his job instead of on her.

"May be he´s jsut a little to shy to call you this time. I mean...you had to call him first to start things off at all."

"Dana, Horatio is a grown man, and I think he has a right sense of responsibility. Unlike someone I know, who promised me that she would do her homework before her first date with a guy named Mark."

"Aaaah...could you please stop getting on my nerves with this homework stuff. I promised, I know. But I really didn´t have the time that night. And anyway, the next time I did my homework, and even finished the history essay before Mark came to pick me up...How about you go visit him at work?"

"I think he´s mostly out on the streets, interrogating people and stuff."

"I don´t know, but you can just try. You now...you work too long anyway. What are your working hours again!"

"12 pm to 6 pm...I know."

"Exactly. You could stop on time for once, instead of working over-time and not having a social life."

"But I have a social life!"

"You call serving people 24/7, and talking to them from time to time, a social life!"

"To me it is. I don´t have school any more and live at home with my parents. I have to earn money to pay my bills and contracts. The apartment costs me a hell of a lot of bucks." Cathrine took a sip from her cappocino. "And anyway, I´m making a lot of friends here, you know."

"Friends you only see while you´re working and never go anywhere else with."

"I go out with You!"

"Yes, and I´m half the age you are. I just think you should go out dancing with people your own generation and so on, that´s all."

"Yes, I know!...The bad thing is, I know your right, I should go out more often with people my age." Cathrine leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "I can´t believe that I need counseling from a 17 year old."

* * *

A shot rang over the street passing in front of _Lobito´s, _and shouts erupted from the people standing behind the yellow crime scene ribbon. Horatio took a quick look over the croud and then crouched on the floor as well. Screams were coming from one side of the group of evacuated people. Some were still standing around, looks of fear stared around the place.

"Down!" shouted Horatio. "Get down!" He got up and ran towards a man in his fifties that was glancing at a window of the renovated hotel opposite the café. He reached up to the mans´ shoulders and pressed him to the ground. "Get down!" Horatio looked up to see if he could spot the sniper that had let the shot go. But there was no one in sight. Finally, as all the other policeman were getting to the same conclusion as Horatio, people did get back up again, and he realized that a womans´ scream was piercing his ears.

"Oh my God! He´s dead! They shot him! Tommy...ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod..."

Somewhere from over his left side someone called. "Caine!"

"Yes!" it was Detective Tripp.

"Get over here!"

Horatio walked over to were he was looking down on the corpse of a little boy. There was bloodon one side ofhis face, a clean shot through his left temple. Horatio put his hands on his hips and tilted his head a little to look at Tripp.

Suddenly Horatio heard an explosion and the ground beneath his feet shook. A shock wave threw him backwards and he felt blood trickling out of his ear. In shock he turned his head over to the resaturant. Half of it had blown away, and some witnesses of the croud had been hit by pieces of wall or furniture from the restaurant that had been catapulted into the air by the explosion. The scene looked like a war zone. Horatio figured that the S.W.A.T. team had already been called, but he knew that, by the time they arrived, the sniper would already be miles away.

* * *

Cathrine was walking home from work, thinking about the conversation she had with Dana that afternoon. It was true that her apartment required a lot of her money every month, but she hadn´t told anyone about the little fortune she had inherited from her grandfather after his death. She had never needed it, or wanted it for that matter. She didn´t think highly of people that were getting whatever they wanted, those snobs that thought they were something better than anyone else. That was one of the reasons she hadn´t told anyone about it yet. She didn´t want to be put into that drawer.

After high school Cathirne had decided not to attend collage. There hadn´t been any special field of interest for her in her early life, and therefore her grandfathers money had just rotten away in her bank account. But as she´d moved to Miami it had come handy to her after she found the beautiful apartment she now owned. She hadn´t gone into a shopping frenzy though, and so her flat was only furnished with the necessities of life. And Cathrine was happy with it that way.

Eventhough Cathrine had to pay rent for that apartment every moth, she still had a lot of money left on her account, so there was no real need for her to work at the café at all. But she wanted to have something to do all day, and being a waitress wasen´t such a poor job. But Dana had been right that she did seem a little helpless, hanging around with people that were mostly much younger than herself. Problem was, she didn´t know how she could get in contact with people her age. May be another job would do, or attending womens clubs or something. Cathrine hadn´t been sure about that while her talk with Dana had still been going on, but now, as she was alone with her thoughts, there was an idea that came to mind. Universtity. Of course there were still people younger than her attending, but she also knew that there were people attending that were also older. Women, whose children had grown up, and who now had spare time which they wanted to fill in with something practical, and may be get an authentic job after study as well. Only question now was, what would she study?

She was snapped out of her thoughts, while looking for her keys in her bag, by the ringing of her phone inside of her apartment. She put more attention into finding the key, eventually found it, turned it inside the lock and quickly answered the phone that stood right beside the entrance door.

"Cathrine Deven."

"Hi Cathirne."

It was Horatio, and Cathrine´s heart made a little jump inside of her chest. "Horatio...Hi."

"I thought that I would get you around this time. Listen..."

"Yeah?"

"I had a very busy and..as you would call it... depressing ...day today." ´Vey depressing´he thought to himself. The Bomb Squad had a lot of casulties to report. "So I thought that may be you could help me clear my head a little."

"And what has come to mind?"

"I hoped you would now."

She was amazed that they talked to together like they had know the other all their lives. "May be I do. Horatio? When was the last time you went out dancing?"

* * *

"Do you come here often!" Horatio had lean in closely for Cathrine to understand him. The music was deafening in the small latino club she had taken him to. The whole place was crowded. Cathrine couldn´t see one free space at the table that took up the room on one side of the club, nor up at the bar. The dancefloor was full of couples moving to the beat of a cha-cha-cha. Cathrine noticed that the ´Manana´ hadn´t changed much since the last time she had been there.

"I haven´t been here in ages!" she shouted into his ear. She was touching his forearm very slightly, but he nevertheless got unexpected heatflashes. Horatio couldn´t remeber the last time a woman made him feel like that. "I used to come every week right after I moved here."

He nodded to give her a sign that he had heard. They moved over to one side of the room to give themselfs some space. Horatio moved in closer again, and Cathrine could smell his after shave.

"You want a drink!"

"No thank you, not yet. And anyway, we came here to do something else than drink this time." She took him by the hand and dragged him onto the dance floor.

"I´m not sure if I can do this anymore." he said, referring to his ability to dance.

"That´s okay...I´ll show you."

Cathrine moved beside him and showed him the basic steps of the cha-cha. Horatio followed her steps and was more quickly back into it that he´d thought. He grabbed her hand and guided her back in front of him. The last time he´d gone out dancing was at least 10 years ago, but now he felt as if he´d been dancing all his life. They quickly fell into step and Horatio started to spin her around like a professional. Cathrine was so much into it and wasen´t emberrased to show it. She threw her head back when she fell back wards and moved extremely close to him whenever he pulled her back towards himself. Horatio couldn´t take is eyes off her. Her eyes were sparkling with enery, and her clothes were accentuating her figure perfectly. Cathrine was wearing a short, many-layered red skirt with a black tank-top and a pair of high-heels.

As the song ended she wiped a thin layer of sweat off her forehead and was about to exuse herself to go to the ladiesroom, as the next song started. It was a slower one. Horatio held her back and pulled her towards him. He noticed her breath quickening, and smiled to himself. She felt him place his hand on the low of her back and edge a little closer. She thought she would faint, but willed her hand to place itself on his shoulder. He took her other hand in his and slowly they started moving to the beat of the music. He lowered his head a little so it was in level with hears, and heard her breath against his ear, and her quick heartbeat against his chest.

"Nervous?" he breathed into her ear.

"Yes." She wispered, and they stayed like that till the end of the song.

* * *

They were standing in front of her apartment, it was 1:30 in the morning.

"Thank you for taking me out tonight." Horatio said with his hands in his pockets, looking at the door.

"It was my pleasure. You´re a good dancer, you know." She took his hand into hers. "Thank you Horatio...I really enjoyed it."

He squeezed it and gave her a smile. "You wanna go out again tomorrow?"

"Sure. Where to?"

"How about dinner?"

"I´d like that."

"Okay. So 8 o´clock tomorrow night."

"Could we make it 9? I have to go to a birthday party earlier."

"Sure, I have a funeral to aatend to, so that´s okay. 9 then?"

"9."

"Good night, Cathrine."

"Good night, Horatio." She turened her key in the lock and the door opened. She took a step inside and he alreday wanted to leave, when she turned around again and made him stop in his tracks. She reached for his face and took it in her hands. Horatio couldn´t recollect later what really happened, but he knew that she had come really close. So close that he could see all the hairs of her eyelashes, smell the perfume on her neck, her brown deep eyes looking into his. In immedeate reaction he bent lower and felt how she gave him a little kiss on his cheek, their mouths crossed a little. It was too sensuous and he had to let out a shuddering breath to relieve the tension within himself. She backed away, looked into his eyes and smiled.

Then Cathrine turned back around again, went into her apartment, slowly closed the door and took a last look at him. "Good night." The door locked.

Horatio was still standing in the corridor and still felt her lips linger on his face.


	7. Spontaneity

Horatio began to feel stress creep into the case they were working on. Not only did the crime lab have to workon the bomb-sniper case, but also concentrate on all the other crimes that were committed none the less. Now that a sniper had joined the game of bomb-no bomb, he and his team had to work faster than time allowed and willed. Today was the day they had to find out where exactly the sniper had shot from and find any traces of him that he unconsiously had left behind.

Horatio found Calleigh in the ballistics lab, packing the laser that they needed to trace the flight of the bullet she had found a few feet away from where the little boy had been shot. Unfortunately Horatio couldn´t go back to the crime scene himself and therefore ordered Eric to go with Calleigh instead, while Speed was comparing the survaillance tapes they had of the ATMs outside the Beauty Parlor and the Bank. Yesterday Yelina and him had started to interrogate the witnesses, which they had plenty of, and he knew that he would spend today doing the same. Now he was just waiting for Yelina to arrive. It was going to be a long and tough day. Not only would he need the patience to sit through all those questionings, but also a thick skin for the funeral he had to attend later in the day.

Horatio strongly felt that the killers were playing a bad version of cats and dogs with the MDPD, and for once he had the urge to do more than just collect the evidence the killers left around, in order to bring those people to justice.

* * *

Cathrine had arrived at Dana´s Birthday Party at 5 pm, and now it was close to 8 o´clock and she wanted to get home and make herself ready before Horatio would come and pick her up. She felt bad about going so early and was hesitating to walk over to Dana and tell her. But Dana must have felt that Cathrine wanted to go early and so went over to her instead and told her to go...

"...and get ready! Otherwise he´ll take someone else out to dinner."

"Alright, alright. Thank you Dana."

"For what! I just want you to go and have a great evening. I´m not going to be the one that keeps you from a good shagg."

"Dana!"

"Just kidding. I should thank you for coming at all. And for the necklace and earings, they´re beautiful."

"My pleasure. I´ll see you tomorrow then?"

"Of course. I have to ask you all about it, don´t I?"

"Good night darlin´...I love you. I hope you know that."

"Love you too. Good night." She gave Cathrine a bear hug and pushed her out the door.

* * *

Cathrine was just putting on her lipgloss as the doorbell rang. She hurried over to her door and opened it in one quick motion. Horatio was standing in front of her, one had rested on the door frame, the other was hidden behind his back. He was wearing a beige silk suit with a black shirt underneath. His sunglasses hung close around his neck.

"Hi." She said a little hesitant. He had this sly grin on his face.

"I´ve made a change in plans." Cathrine eyed him questioningly. "I thought that, instead of going out for dinner," he pulled a brown shopping back from behind." We could make some ourselfs and eat here."

"Quite spontanious for someone who has to have everything under control."

"You´re right."

"I like spontaneity."

"I´ll take that as a yes."

He came in and Cathirne closed the door behind him.

He went to put the bag into the kitchen. "How about you put on that song that you were singing the other day."

"Oh! Don´t remind me of that." She walked over to her stereo, turned it on and pressed play. Then she went into the kitchen and leaned against the counter looking into the brown paper bag. "So what have we got to work with?"

"I thought that you might like to eat some pasta with pomodoro sauce?"

"And I thought you had a problem with our original plans tonight, but here you are...letting me choose what we´ll have for dinner."

"I didn´t know you could be so sarcastic."

"Well, you see I can."

They got started on the cooking, and while Cathrine cut the onions for the sauce, Horatio waited patiently for the water to boil. ´He seems a little quiet today´ Cathrine thought and eyed him from the side. Horatio was looking down at the floor, his forehead in creases, obviously deep in thought.

"What´s wrong?"

"Oh, nothing. It´s just the job."

"Just becuase you feel you don´t want to bother be by talking about it, doesn´t mean I don´t want to hear it."

"No, it´s okay. It´s nothing."

"Fine, if you don´t want me to hear how good you are at your job, that´s okay with me. It´s not like I won´t hear about it on TV, but...outch!" A little blood wa trickling down her index finger.

"Did you cut yourself?"

"No, it´s okay. It´s nothing." Cathrine put the knife aside and started to suck on her finger. Horatio was absentmindedliy watching her struggles to continue cooking, while occasionally sucking on her index. Horatio felt these heatflashes again, she looked so sexy sucking on that finger, and had to hold himself back to not intently stare at her.

"You still helping me out or not!"

* * *

20 minutes later Cathrine took out one of the spagetti and threw it agianst the wall behind the stove.

"What are you doing!" Horatio thought he wasen´t seeing right.

"What! You never learned that when you throw the spagetti against a tiled wall and it stays put, they´re ready to eat?"

"No."

"Well...I did. Can you put the siv that´s in the drawer under the fridge into the sink?"

After Cathrine had poured away the water, she set up the table while he served the food. They sat down.

"Ready to taste my seasoning?" Horatio asked.

"If you´d know how spicy I make my sauce. I think I´m ready for an adventure."

They ate a little while in silence, until Horatio put down his fork and spoon and looked at Cathrine intently.

She was just sucking a spagetti into her mouth and nearly chocked on it as she realized he was staring at her. "Wha...What is it!" Cough, chough...chough.

He hit her on the back to ease the discomfort. "I want to thank you."

"For what?"

"I know we´ve just gone out three times so far, if we add tonight, but...I´ve told you about my past and...I hardly do anything else besides live for my job. I haven´t gone out for years, nor danced the past 15. I...I forgot how life could be. I´m always on the job, making sure that the people of this city get their gratification for what has been done to their sons or daughters, husbands or wifes, lovers, friends, brothers or sisters." He gave her a quircky smile and tilted his head to the side. "I don´t often get in touch with the other side of life anymore...I just want to thank you for showing it to me gain. Eventhough it has only been a few times. So far...I hope."

"No problem. My pleasure. You know...I don´t know anyone as truthful as you are. I mean...I wouldn´t have told you what you told me just now if I´d feel like that. Don´t misunderstand me, but...I don´t really know you yet."

"No offence taken. I don´t usually tell these things to anyone. May be it´s because I don´t know you so well, that I can tell you all of this. I talk about the job most of the time, but you´re not a cop. I guess I feel I should talk about other things with you, for your sake."

She gave a hearty laugh and a wide smile. "Horatio..."

"Hmmm?"

"A character in Shakespeare´s Hamlet was called Horatio, you know. He was the first CSI, if you can call him that. He told the world why Hamlet died."

"I know." Cathrine raised her eyebrows in question. "Someone told me the same thing recently. She died a few weeks ago." This time it was her turn to tilt her head to the side. "Her name was Belle King. She was poisened by her secret admierer."

"Poisened? Isn´t that a bit old fashioned."

"Not when you do it with Iodine 131."

"Isn´t that radioactive?"

"Yes."

"Oh my God...I told you your job is depressing!"

* * *

Cathrine was escorting Horatio down to his Hummer after they had ended up talking for another three hours after they had finished their dinner. After he got in, he opened the window to let Cathrine lean into the car.

"Wow, that´s quite a spacious car."

"We´ve got a lot of equippment to store away in here."

"That´s right. Well, it was nice having you over for dinner tonight."

"It was nice of you to still let me in after I changed our palns."

"I guess that means that I still got a joker up my sleeve."

He gave her one of those heart-warming smiles, and Cathrine had to use all her self-control not to forcefully take his face into her hands and press her lips against his.

"Good night, Cathrine."

"Good night, Horatio." She stepped away from the car as he started the engine, and waved him as he slowly drove away.


	8. Mr Tired Mind

"It was a small kaliber, a 2,23. I think either a Winchester 70 or a Remington 700." Calleigh was filling Horatio in about her latest analysis on the bullet that had killed the little kid.

"But you said you had some bad news for me as well." He stemmed his hands on his hips and eyed her over his sunglasses which he hadn´t taken off yet.

"Yes, unfortunately the bullet must have been covered with a plastic coating, and therefore the barrel left no striations on it for me to trace the weapon."

"Okay...so we´re dealing with a pro."

"Not exactly. Although the guy is smart enough to use untraceable bullets, Eric and me traced the flight of the bullet and ended up with a window exactly opposite the restaurant. Right up that hotel that´s being renovatedaccross the crime scene. Eventhough he wasen´t so far away from his target, the shooter must have still been someone that trains a lot, to be able to fire a shot like that, but he was not a pro in that matter. A pro would concider that too easy a shot."

"But he might be someone who´s learing." Calleigh nodded in agreement. "Good. Thanx Calleigh, good job."

* * *

„Hi Horatio! It´s good that you´re calling, I needed to speak to you anyway about tonight."

"Cathrine, about tonight...I, I think I can´t make it."

"Oh, why not?"

"I think I need some time for myself."

"That bad, eh?"

"Well, yeah."

"Hm...ok, how about we don´t go out for dinner then. I mean, I am a bit dissappointed you know...cuz it was my turn to take you out tonight. You know what I had planned?"

"Don´t tell me, otherwise I´ll feel evenmore guilty Cathrine."

"Good, so I´m gonna tell you...I wanted to take you to this restaurant that serves their customers directly at the beach, and then I planned to take you on a nice little walk along the beach afterward, like at the first time we met."

"Cathrine..."

"But you know...that´s okay. I have another idea, one that won´t need you do anything for it."

"Cathrine, I really don´t know if I´m up for that."

"Trust me. You won´t have to do anything."

* * *

It was past 7 p.m., and Horatio was waiting for Cathrine to arrive. On the outside he seemed his usual calm self, but on the inside he was nervous like a little child on it´s first school day, that was hoping that it would make some friends right at the beginning. He hadn´t had anyone over for a long, long time. Not even Ray Jr. and Yelina, let alone a woman. He wondered how Cathrine would like his home, the orderly house it was. His ex-wife hadn´t wanted it after their divorce, and they hadn´t been living in it that long for any special memories to occur in it, so there wasen´t anything left that reminded Horatio of that time in his life.

Cathrine hadn´t told him anything about her plans for that night, just told him to expect her around 7. The case was just driving him nuts and he needed some time to relax and not concentrate on anything. Just be fed with information he didn´t need to respond to, so he hoped that Cathrine knew what she was doing. Otherwise he was going to blame the pressure he would have the next days, on her.

His doorbell rang, and he went over to it to let her in.

"Hello there, tired mind." She stood up on her tiptoes and gave Horatio a peck on his cheek.

"What was that for?"

"For looking gorgeous." Cathrine thought she wasen´t seeing right, but she caught a hint of a blush.

´Pull yourself together!´Horatio thought to himself. Calleigh called him ´´Handsome´´ all the time. ´But Cathrine is not Calleigh´.

"So, here I am, and I made Persian Rice with Cranberries, and Chicken with pepper-cream sauce. I hope you´ll like it. Where´s your kitchen?" Horatio pointed towards his right. "Thank you." She carried the food to the kitchen counter and started tofind her way around the kitchen. He came over to give her a hand, but she took him by the arm and pulled him into the livingroom.

"No no, no helping tonight mister. You just sit here," she pushed him onto his couch and handed him the remote that was lying on the table. "And watch the news, while I serve the food." That said, she walked back to the kitchen, and Horatio heard her rummaging around in it for another 10 minutes, until she returned with two plates of steaming dinner.

"Should we go sit at the table?" He asked.

"You wanted to be lazy tonight, so we´ll be lazy." Cathrine handed him his plate and some silverware, and then took her own meal onto her lap. Horatio followed all her movements with a stare of awe, an then started laughing so hard, he had to put his plate back on the table so he wouldn´t spill the food all over the floor. Cathrine looked at him dumbstruck. "WHAT!"

He shook his head from side to side, "I didn´t know you could be so demanding Cathrine."

She broke into a laugh as well, "I didn´t know that either til now. There´re quite a lot of things I found out about myself since I met you." He looked at her, trying to figure out what she meant. But before he could capture one clear thought, she went back to her plate, reminding him that he hadn´t started his meal yet. They ate quietly together while watching the evening news, and after she had finished her dinner last, Cathrine took the two empty plates and brought them into the kitchen. She came back with a video tape in her hand.

"Oh, so what are we watching?" he asked.

"Since you´ve hinted to me on the phone, that you didn´t want anything too demanding tonight, besides me i guess, I thought that, may be, we could watch ´The Fellowship of the Ring´ together. You´ve seen it already?"

"No."

"Good. It´s one of my favorite."

* * *

When the credits played, and Horatio was about to get up to turn on the lights, he realized that Cathrine had fallen asleep on his shoulder. He didn´t know what to do, how to react. She looked so peacefull, with her hair covering half of her face, her mouth slightly agape. Her lips shimmered a deep red in the dim ligth of the TV, and Hortio was earnestly concidering to kiss Cathrine right then and there. But he didn´t. He was a man of control, and he didn´t want to lose it in a situation like that. And he also didn´t want to face the consequenses of an unthoughtful act like this one. So instead, he took hold of her arm, and gently shook her.

Cathrine slowly openen her eyes and took a look around the room.

"Oh, I´m sorry. Did I fall asleep?"

"Yes you did."

"Sorry."

"No need to excuse yourself."

She smiled at him and got up from her seat. "I guess it must be late then."

"You´re right. It´s 12:30."

"Oh, I didn´t mean to keep you awake that long. The movie was too long, eh?"

"A little, but that´s okay. I liked it."

"Really? Good. I´ll be going then." Cathrine walked over to the kitchen to get her stuff, and then was accompanied to the door by Horatio.

"Thank you for coming over. I thought tonight really relaxing."

"Yes? Good...Sorry."

"For what?"

"For saying ´good´all the time."

"No, that´s...good."

She laughed, causing her lips to part slightly, and Horatio couldn´t resist any longer and kissed her full on the mouth.


	9. Surprises

EquestrianBabe - I think your question will be answered in this chapter : )

* * *

"And then he kissed you?"

"Yeah."

"Square on the mouth?"

Cathrine couldn´t quite tell Dana what had happened, even though it was still freshly engraved in her memory. It had come totally unexpected.

She still heard him draw his breath, just seconds before he bend low and kissed her lips. The force exerted on her body nearly made her fall backwards. Her tupperweare was taken out of her hands and put aside on the little table where the phone stood. He broke away from her lips, just to cover them again with his within miliseconds. This time they were slightly open. Sensations rolled over her that she hadn´t felt in years as he wraped his arms around her waist and took a step forward to minimize the space between them. One of Horatios hands moved a little lower, and in response Cathrine parted her lips and gave in. He groaned into her mouth when she ran her fingers throu his hair and pressed him closer against her body. His lips were really warm, and tasted...like..._Cathrine..._

"Cathrine!"

"What!"

"Square on the mouth!"

"Dana! That´s none of your business."

"Ah, becoming protective. Are we?"

"No. It´s not like he´s my boyfriend or anything."

"No, not at all. It´s just that you had like 4 dates so far...and...he kissed you, square on the mouth."

"Well. Yeah, but...ach, I don´t know."

"You liked it, didn´t you?"

"Yes."

"So?"

"I just have the feeling that there´s something still between us."

"After you shared that kiss!" Cathrine looked at her, surprised that Dana knew how passionate their kiss had been. "Don´t look at me like that. I can see it in your eyes that you are still quite surprised about him taking that step, and how much you liked it, and...well...I can see it...May be it´s just the job."

"I don´t know."

"Then how about you go visit him at the Station?"

"I think he hasen´t got any time now. And neither have I."

"Well, you finish at 6, right?"

"Yeah."

"And when does he go home?"

"His shift is over at 7."

"You could go when you´re finished, and then go out for dinner or something when he´s ready."

"You know what. I might even do that."

"Thank God I got her take matters into her own hands."

"Dana!"

"Sorry, sarcasm is my nature."

* * *

It was exactly 6 o´clock when Cathrine left the café. She didn´t go directly to the Lab, but went home instead to freshen up a little before she would finally meet Horatio´s co-workers. And she would go there by car as well. She didn´t use it often, because she thought that walking to and from work every day would keep her more healthy than workout at a fitness center, which were the trend these days. But today she didn´t feel like walking all the way to the Station, or taking the bus wither. She felt more comfortable going by car, more independant, more secure and ready to face the people Horatio worked with every day.

When Cathrine got out of the car, there was no one else on the parking-lot, and she wondered if it was an exceptionally quiet day today. She walked up to the man behind the counter in the Entrance Hall.

"Hi, I´d like to see Lieutenant Caine please."

"And your name?"

"Cathrine Deven."

"Okay, Ms. Deven. Take the elevator up to the 3rd Floor, then walk all the way down the corridor and then to your right. There are some seats. He´ll meet you there."

"Thank you, Officer."

* * *

Timothy Speedle was on his way to the Breakroom, when he walked past the waiting room and noticed a woman with jet-black hair sitting on the bench. Waiting. She looked nervous and was constantly wraping a lock of hair around her index finger.

"Can I help you Miss...?"

"Deven. Cathrine Deven. Oh, no. I´m fine. I´m here to see Lieutenant Caine."

When she looked up at him, he immediately noticed her pirceing green eyes. "Horatio? I think that´ll take a while. He´s processing a DNA sample. Ehm, can I get you anything? I´m on my way to the Breakroom. Sorry, I´m Tim Speedle by the way." They shook hands.

"Oh, no. Thank you."

"Sure? I won´t tell."

"It´s okay, I´m fine."

"Okay. I guess he´ll be coming in about 20 minutes."

"Aha."

Tim continued his way to the Breakroom, eyebrows raised and a smile playing around his lips.

* * *

Horatio came around half-an-hour later, wearing his turquoiseish lab coat and a look of surprise on his face.

"Cathrine! What are you doing here?"

"Well, I thought it´d be nice to come and visit you. See where you work all day, use that smart brain of yours."

"Ehm, about yesterday night. I´m sorry. I didn´t mean to be so...harsh."

After they had finally broken away from eachother Cathrine left without another word. She had just taken her tupperweare and gone to the car. Horatio worried about it all day long, but had he seen Cathrine´s huge smile and facial expressions when she walked back to her Pontiac, he would have slept absolutely peaceful that night.

"I must confess that I really liked what happened last night." She took a step closer to him, so that they were barely an inch away from eachother. He couldn´t believe the power this woman had over him as he felt his knees becoming weak.

"I did too." He said.

"Yeah?"

"Aha." She smiled up at him and nudged his left arm. "How about we go into my office?"

"Sure."

They walked to the otherside of the room, down another corridor, through a door into a lab that housed a lot of microscopes and other equipment Cathrine figured the CSIs used to analyze their findings. But there wasen´t that much time to inspect the place too closely, because Horatio took a flight of stairs directly on their left. And when they arrived at the top, he walked through a door on the right that lead into a room of which one wall was one complete window from which you could look down into the lab they had just walked through. They were just covered with blinds. On the wall with the door leaned an old green sofa. Opposite that was Horatio´s desk, behind it a chair that didn´t look too comfortable. All in all, the room looked like Cathrine´s brother´s room when he hadn´t cleaned it up for a while.

"Don´t worry, I don´t spend a lot of my time here. Just to look over reports and sign them, usually at the end of the day. So, what do you want to do today? Where do you want to go?"

"Well, I hoped to get a little tour through the place."

"A tour?" He put his hands on his hips and tilted his head to the side.

"I love it when you do that."

"Do what?"

"That hip thing." He looked down on himself and let his arms fall to his sides. "Aw..." Cathrine pouted her lips. "I guess you don´t wan to give me a tour."

"I do, but may be not today. Is that okay?"

"But why? Dou you have to get yourslef emotionally ready first?"

"Emotionally ready?"

"Yeah. Like guys do before they ask the girl out they liked for so many years."

"Cathrine, sometimes I have the feeling that your creativity runs amock with you."

"No, not at all. It rather amuses me, and I like that."

"Good. Because I don´t think I can change it."

Suddenly someone knocked on the door. "Yes." It was Yelina Salas.

"Horatio...Oh. I didn´t know you had a visitor."

"Well, yeah. Cathrine, this is Detective Yelina Salas."

"Right. You are Horatio´s siter-in-law."

"Yah, that´s me." She gave Cathrine a smile and offered her her hand. Yelina could immediately sense that there was something going on between the two, and even though she had an interest in Horatio herself, she was happy that he had found someone to take his mind off the job sometimes.

Cathrine liked Yelina immediately, but she saw that Horatio was a little uneasy, and wondered if he had feelings for his deceased brother´s wife. She had seen his eyes lit up when Yelina entered the room, and was a little hurt that he hadn´t told her about those feelings. It hadn´t been his responsibility to tell her of them since they were starting to developing a love relationship, but she also felt connected to him in a different way, a more brother-sisterly way. And now, as they were standing together in his office, she was surprised to have not noticed that other face of her relationship with Horatio before.

"What is it Yelina?" Horatio felt trapped between the two, and even though he saw that they were looking at eachother with a friendly eye, he himself was so confused at the intensity of uneasiness he expierenced during Yelina´s and Cathrine´s first meeting. Here they were, the two women he adored, wondering how he would get out of this trinagle without hurting one or the other.

"We got another witness saying he saw a guy that fits to the description our Mrs. Parker gave us."

"May be he could identify him from the survaillance tapes."

"Called him already. He´ll be here in about 20 minutes."

He stemed his hands on his hips and gave her a one of his weak smiles that could illuminate the whole room. Cathrine shifted uneasily from one foot to the other, and Yelina looked at the other woman that was a few inches smaller than herself.

And then Speedle came in through the doorway. "Horatio! We spotted him on the tapes!" With just one glance Tim saw that Horatio was greatful for an interruption at this point. After Ms. Deven had told Tim that she was there to see Horatio, he figured that she had been the reasons for all the turndowns he had gotten from Horatio over the past few weeks, every time he had asked him out for a beer after they had finished work for that day. And now as he saw all three of them together in one room; it was common knowledge at the Station that there was some attraction between Horatio and Yelina; he knew that what started now, was a very complicated and inevitable time for his superior.

"You got a break!"

"Yeah!"

"Good job, Speed."

"Should I tell our Witness that he won´t have to come anymore?" Yelina asked.

"No, he can just reassure us that this is our guy."

"Okay." Yelina left the room to check if Mr. Cortez had already arrived. She took one last look at Cathrine, and as much as she felt that she would really like this woman, she was a little taken aback that second by the fact that Horatio was getting interested in other women, after she had just told herself that she was happy that someone was making him think of other things. It wasen´t like Horatio was hers, but they had come a little closer to eachother in the last months, and she had started to like the idea of having him around more often and to may be even start seeing him. It had taken her a lot of time to get over Ray´s early and untimely death, but Horatio had been there. He´d been there through it all, had suffered the same loss she had. He knew how she looked inside, how hurt she was to find out about Ray´s addiction to drugs, hurt about the way people were talking about him behind her back.

* * *

"Here!" Eric pointed out a man on the screen of the TV they were watching the tape on. "He comes on at 13:25, and leaves again five minutes later."

"Half-an-hour before the threat came in." Horatio stated.

"Just a normal transaction. So this is the first tape. Then Speedle and me looked at the second tape together," he took out the first and then put in the second assett, "And I noticed the same guy doing a transaction again. Showed the other tape to Speedle, he confirmed."

"Well done Eric." Horatio got his cell phone out of his pocket and diealed a speed number. "Yeah, Yelina? Is your witness there yet...aha...good. Yeah...yes... okay. Thanx." He let his cell phone ends snap together. "Okay, Eric. You get those tapes ready, and I´ll come back with a witness, that can identify a suspect him and Mrs. Parker saw at both scenes."

"Sure H."

Horatio left the A/V lab to go get the witness from the crossexamination room.

* * *

´So that was Horatio´s siter-in-law.´ Cathrine thought to herself. She was a beautiful woman. Long curly hair, dark skin, a lucious mouth and amazing eyes. Cathrine had the feeling that she would loose against her. She had seen the attraction that existed between the two, and she could sense that it was equally strong on both sides. She had watched the unconciencous giving and taking of protection, understanding and love during the few seconds of seeing them together. She felt she didn´t have the right abilities to stand up against that woman. In looks and personality. It seemed Horatio and her had a much deeper, much closer connection than they had. But may be she just felt that way now, after an unexpected meeting like that.

Cathrine had been looking forward to the dinner she had planned for tonight, but now all she wanted was a little time for herslef. To reflect on what had just happened, and to get the fellings that where creeping into her heart into an order that made sense, and that made it possible for her not to expierience any sudden attacks of jealousy. If there was one feeling in the world she hated most, it was jealousy.

* * *

Horatio, Yelina, Eric and Tim were all sitting in the A/V lab, waiting for thier witness to identify the possible suspect. They let him watch a few minutes before the guy appeared on the tape, and when he finally did, Mr. Cortez gave a little cry and pointed figorously at the screen. Eric let the other tape run as well, and Cortez confirmed that it was the same guy on both vidoes.

"Thank you, Mr. Cortez. We really appriciate your help and cooperation."

"No problem Lieutenant. I´ll do anything to help you get the guy that shot the little kid."

Mr. Cortez was accompanied out the door by Yelina, who took a last glance at Horatio and decided to aks him if he wanted to come over and have dinner with her and Ray Jr., later.

"So, I guess you know that that means a lot of work for you two."

"We´ll start right on it H."

Horatio left the lab and went to meet Cathrine halfway way down the corridor that lead to the elevator.

"Cathrine."

She stopped in her stride and turned around to face him. He immediately noticed her sunken face. "Yeah?"

"Will I see you tonight?"

"I don´t know. I´m a little tired today."

Horatio could sense immediately that something was not right, but he didn´t want to talk about that now, not here. So he gave her one of those sad smiles with furrowed eyebrows. "Well, then tomorow."

"Sure. I´d like that."

"Good. See you tomorrow then. Should I come over to your place?"

"That´d be great."

"Okay." He hoped, but at the same time didn´t hope, that she would give him a kiss. But it did not come, and he wondered if he had done something wrong.


	10. One Step Further

Police cars and the Bomb Squad truck were pulling up at an Every-Mart were a lot of civilians were already lining the sidewalks, and confused and paniced shoppers were spilling out of the Mart. Horatio´s Hummer came to a shrieking stop not far away from where the bomb squad was assembling, leaving behind a nice set of tire-tracks that would give easy play for a CSI to track him down. It was another bobmb threat, and Horatio could see on the faces of the Policemen and Detectives that they were getting tired of it. But it was their job to check out all possible threaths that could endanger the people of thier city, so they appeared at the scenes every time. Horatio walked over to where Tripp and Hagan were watching from a save distance away, close to the victims of the threat that were crowding the sidewalk opposite the Mart. He could see all kinds of people in the crowd, from elderly folk, to mothers with children, to teenagers smoking cigarettes to calm themselfs down.

"I guess the same as with all the other threats."

"Yes." Tripp said, looking down at the floor, feeling helpless because he couldn´t know what would happen next.

_Bam...whizz...thud... _it happened within seconds. Horatio saw it in the corner of his eye. The Grandfather standing at his right side fell backwards and landed on the floor. He turned to face him, trying to do something for the man that was lying on the floor next to him, dying. He crouched onto his knees, checking for the man´s pulse, bending over his mouth to check the breathing, starting feverishly to perform CPR on him.

"Get Rescue!" he shouted at the other men, while the people around them realized what was happening and started to panic and crouch down on the floor as well. And then it happened again..._bam...whizz...thud..._Horatio saw another man fall to the floor a few meters away from them. He got up to check out the situation on the other victim.

"Caine! Get down! The bomb might erupt any second!" Tripp screamed at him, but Horatio took a step forward. "Horatio!"

"Frank! There won´t be any bomb exploding!" Horatio had already traced the flight of the two bullets with his photographic mind, and knew that they must have come from a building somewhere on the right of the Every Mart. And he knew that the killer wouldn´t risk blowing himself up. There wasen´t any bomb in the Mart.

"Horatio! DONT MOVE!"

"Frank! We need to help him, we need Rescue!"

"Horatio! DOWN, NOW!" and Horatio did what Tripp ordered him to do, regretting it just a moment later, when he was reassured that no bomb was going to explode; there was absolute silence; and Tripp began to see that as well.

* * *

_Ring Ring_...Cathrine´s phone was ringing while she was taking a shower, accompanying the song that was playing softly in the background.

"..._I knew you needed some blue skies. You need some laugter again, till magic returns to your blue eyes. You´re left in a cricle of pain. Where´s it all going? Each day is the same, where are you going?...Say Hello, Say Hello...You´re never alone. Say Hello, Say Hello...You´re never alone..._"

When she turned off the water the ringing had stopped, and Cathrine never knew someone had tried to reach her, there was no message on the answering machine. But then, when she was already lying in bed, half asleep, someone knocked on the door of her apartment.

´Hu!´ Cathrine was startled out of her sleep, her heart racing in her ribcage. There was a second knock, so she got up, put on her bathrobe, walked over to the door and opened it. Her eyes widened at the sight in front of her.

Horatio looked as if he hadn´t slept at all the past night. Yesterday at the lab he had looked his old self, but now he seemed to have grown 20 years older over night. His shoulders were slumped more than usual, his eyes showed a constant state of guilt and despair and were rimmed red. She was surprised, didn´t know he could be like that, and neither had he.

"Horatio?" He tried to manage a smile, but all he could give her was a lopsided grin. "Are you okay? Oh my God, you look terrible. What happened?" she took him by the hand and led him over to her couch. Then she went back to the door and closed it. After taking a seat opposite Horatio, she still felt a little uncomfortable in his presence after what had happened yesterday, she pulled her knees up to her chest and got ready to listen to whatever he had to say.

"Eric and Speed had a break through in our case yesterday. There was man on both survaillance tapes that stood across the two crime scenes, and two witnesses that had seen him enter the beauty parlour just a half hour before it exploded where able to identify him." Cathrine eyed him with a questioning look, wondering what this was going to be about. "There was another bomb threat at an Every-Mart today. None erupted, but a sniper took up the job of killing instead."

"Oh my God!"

"Our man from the survaillance tapes was hit."

"What!"

"I don´t understand it either."

"But, if he worked together with the killer...I mean..uh..."

"Cathrine?"

"Yes, Horatio?"

"Hold me."

Cathrine´s eyes suddenly started to tear uncontrolably and she started to cry. She could feel the pain of all what had appened today was causing him, and there was more than he would tell behind it all. But she didn´t want to push him. Instead she got up, crossed the little distance that was between them, sat down beside his shrunken frame, and took him into her open arms. He collapsed into her embrace and started sobbing, staining her velvet nightgown with his hot tears.

Cathrine rocked him back and forth...back and forth...back and forth..."Shhhhh. Shhhhh." Back and forth, back and forth. "It´s okay Horatio. It´s okay. Shhhhh..." His arms wrapped around her, making it harder for her to breathe. But she didn´t notice. She didn´t notice how she herself was sobbing. How her arms moved in tighter around his shoulders, didn´t hear herself singing softly into his ear..." _I knew you needed a friend._ _I knew you needed some blue skies. You need some laugter again, till magic returns to your blue eyes. You´re left in a cricle of pain. Where´s it all going? Each day is the same, where are you going?...Say Hello, Say Hello...You´re never alone. Say Hello, Say Hello...You´re never alone..._You´re never alone."

Horatio looked up into her green eyes, his stare wandering down to her mouth which was still wispering those words, over and over again. ´You´re never alone. You´re never alone. You´re never alone...´ His fingertips touched those lips, causing her to stop in mid-sentence. She moved her hands over his red hair to behind his head, pulling his face closer towards hers. She forgot about her feelings of yesterday, those feelings of jealousy and disappointment at the adoring looks Horatio shot at Yelina. She wanted to make this pain inside of him go away, even if it was for only a couple of hours. He looked her deep in the eye, asking for permission to press her lips against his own. She didn´t say a word, just parted her lips slightly. ´Yes´, the gesture told him. ´Yes.´ He kissed her hard and frantically, shocked at how much he had needed this right now. He pressed his torso harder against hers, pushing her into the upholstery of the couch behind her, forcing Cathrine to lie down with him on top of her. He broke the kiss, only to continue with it traveling down her neck onto her collarbone. One of her hands got hold of his hair, while the other moved to her mouth where one of the fingers was softly bitten down on. Horatio´s hands were untieing her bathrobe and slowly tracing the curve of her waist. He paused for a moment and looked at her, and she looked back, begging him not to stop. It had been a long time since any man had made her feel like this. But he knew that if he continued now, there would be no turning back. Cathrine sure wanted it, but she didn´t want him to follow through with it just for her. She wanted him to make the decision and therefore got up and went to her bedroom, leaving the door ajar, letting him follow her if he wanted to.

And he did.


End file.
